Old photos of me as a kid

I have always liked to bake and spend time in the kitchen. I get quite a kick out of this photo of me peering over my mothers shoulder as she made something one day. In this photo I am 9 months old. (The other day, mom brought over a packet with a bunch of things...some old photos that my grandmother had, and since she is now gone and my mom has all of those things, she is re-distributing them.)

Apparently we were making cranberry sauce (according to the note on the back of the photo). I was 17 months old.
My infatuation with tools and building or fixing things got off to an early start...here I am helping to make our new swingset at age 2.
And in this photo, I am 10. Interesting to me to see how my body type was so similar then. I mean, I know it's my body, but I was just a kid! We all get older, and change over time, but there are basic things that will always be...the same.
Aren't my parent's cute?! I was 5 months old.
Another kitchen shot! I was almost 11.

Dog Park Holgas: COLOR

Dog park scans/Camera problems

Whooo, boy. I guess I knew what I was getting into with the unpredictable Holgas, but today was a downer. I went in to WSC to process 3 rolls of film. The first problem was the cover for one of my developing tanks. I always tell the students to look at the cover before you go into the closet...as they age, they crack. And those cracks, while they look small, are actually colossal in terms of light leaks. I saw it right away and went back into the closet with a new lid, but we all know how fast light travels, right? Right. Strike One. After the fixer stage, it's ok to take a peek at the film, as it is no longer sensitive to light. That was when I discovered that one of my cameras is still set on bulb. (The piece of tape I put over the switch must have fallen off, or I took it off and forgot to replace it.) So although each negative was beautifully exposed, they were...well, a blur. Into the trash with that one. Strike Two. The remaining rolls were shot with Holga body #3. I am making notes about this because if I have an errant camera that is ruining my film, I want to know which one it is! (The roll of film gets labelled with which camera it came from.) Apparently the newer Holgas are being made with cute little foam things glued to the inside where the film spools sit. Why? I have no idea. But my foam has long since ripped off (and into the film as it gets advanced) and what's left over is the glue. Given the mechanics of the camera, and the fact that it's just the paper side of the film that should pass by these glue areas, I didn't worry. But something is getting on each negative and adhering to the emulsion...and so there's NO IMAGE where the glue hit the film. Just a bunch of clear dots. Strike Three. Aaargh. SO, the top photo is an "uncleaned" negative, with those black dots being where the glue hit the negative and ripped off the emulsion.

These are light leak (bad cover) examples, above and below.

And a Martha's Vineyard example of the glue issue. Nice pattern, though.

India again

As I peck away at the India negatives (they were, for the most part, scanned last month) I miss it. I want to go BACK. I miss the food, colors, smells, the perpetual commotion, the complete and utter difference from everything I know here. I have not completed the scanning, cleaning and adjusting, but I am getting close. At least with the color negs. The B&W may actually get printed for real. Yeah, you know, like in the darkroom. It is the paper cost that is scaring me, aside from the obvious investment in time. Large chunks of time. HUGE. Did I say it will take a lot of time? In two weeks I start back at WSC like normal, and still have to shoot on the weekends. I am afraid I won't want to go back to WSC after I let the dogs out and have dinner. And I can't work on them during the day. Ironic, isn't it? My office is IN the darkroom, but nothing I do for WSC involves the darkroom. The photo above shows the "dreaded" street vendor food. Americans aren't supposed to eat this stuff. I LOVED IT.

These burlap bags were all filled with hot red peppers. That's a lot of peppers. Vendors tended to specialize in certain items.

The metal buoy bridge in the distance was interesting. Essentially one lane (at least for vehicle traffic) and very long. But, everyone wishing to cross it could clearly see the other side and they just took turns if they had vehicles.

Varanasi. The vendors by the river mostly sold plastic bottles, so that worshippers to the city could take some water from the Ganges with them.

The steps we came down to get onto our boat, the day we floated down the Ganges towards Varanasi.